Mets Baseball Card of the Week: 1975 SSPC Yogi Berra

Here’s another Yogi Berra card that my friend Greg found for me, the first new baseball card to enter my collection in 2016.

In the mid-1970s, Mike Aronstein decided to challenge the Topps monopoly in the baseball card market by producing his own unlicensed set of baseball cards. Needless to say, the lawyers got involved and there was no followup to SSPC’s initial 630-card offering. The set design was inspired by the 1953 Bowman set and the backs feature text edited by Keith Olbermann.

However, my Yogi Berra card is from a 22-card 1975 SSPC Mets team set, not the larger 1975/76 one. It’s a little bit interesting to see Berra was left in the set despite being replaced as the Mets’ manager before it was printed. However, with the exception of Tom Seaver, the 1975 Mets had few stars and it’s hard to argue with having a Hall of Famer on your checklist.